I will hopefully have begun HRT before the end of July and I've just realised that I'll probably have to out myself to my friends sooner than I'd planned if I want to continue archery.
The reason being that breasts and bows do not work well in concert, so discounting the Amazon approach *shudder* that means wearing a chest guard like the other girls in the group.

Given that they are worn almost exclusively by the fairer sex, and that I haven't bothered with one over the last three years in which we've been shooting together, this would likely raise a few questions.
I'm not going to lie to them so that means telling them that I'm transitioning.
The alternatives I can see are stopping archery altogether or risking being smacked in the chest with 28lbs (13kg) of pressure with every arrow loosed which I'm not willing to risk.

I'm curious as to whether anyone else has found themselves in a similar position?

No, but I can assure you being smacked in the boobs with 28 lbs of bow string will put you on the ground after one arrow!

I rather liked archery but never had a problem without a chest guard. Admittedly, it has been a while. I had more problem hitting my arm.

Always wondered. How do you get the people to volunteer to put the apple on their head?

Quote from: LordKAT on June 28, 2014, 01:46:54 PM
I rather liked archery but never had a problem without a chest guard. Admittedly, it has been a while. I had more problem hitting my arm.

Were you not rotating your elbow so that the arm would only bend towards your chest? If not then your elbow will stick out into the path of the string.

The girls in my archery club are on the whole unusually well endowed perhaps drawn together either by a shared... unusualness (noone in the archery club could be defined as normal) or by some kind of gravitational effect. One or two of them could get away without wearing one but if developing breasts are going to be particularly sensitive then I'm not going to chance it.

Quote from: Cindy on June 28, 2014, 01:50:17 PM
Always wondered. How do you get the people to volunteer to put the apple on their head?

Sadly we're not allowed crossbows as they count as firearms. Noone has tried the apple trick since our Swiss captain left to join the Swiss airforce. I know, who knew there was a Swiss airforce? Perhaps they do airdrops for the Red Cross

We do however have a cardboard cutout of a particularly vicious and not very convincing wolf made by one of the members who was bored XD

Quote from: Cindy on June 28, 2014, 01:50:17 PM
Always wondered. How do you get the people to volunteer to put the apple on their head?

I probably would have just prior to HRT.

Don't worry. I'm much better now.

Ooops forgot it was a crossbow!

Always fancied archery, seems an interesting way to target shoot.

@Jill - I so know what you mean Sis!!!!

The tenderness would be enough that I would have to agree with the chest guard. As to turning my arm as you say, I'm not comprehending what you mean. I will have to play with google a bit.

Quote from: LordKAT on June 28, 2014, 02:15:46 PM
The tenderness would be enough that I would have to agree with the chest guard. As to turning my arm as you say, I'm not comprehending what you mean. I will have to play with google a bit.

Extend the arm which you would use to hold the bow in, bend your elbow so that your arm is at ninety degrees on a horizontal plain, straighten your arm again and observe how having rotated your elbow it doesn't stick out into the path of the string. Alternatively look at position A below.



Position B is where the majority of archer's arms naturally rest when they begin training, adopting Position A means you won't get hit in the arm as much

I DJ Drum & Bass music in clubs, local festivals & host/perform at fundraisers for local mutual aid groups. I've been involved in this scene for a number of years now which I imagine has made my transition a lot less nerve racking.  When I started becoming more recognized as an artist I changed my stage name and started presenting as female

just wear it if you need it, and tell folks that you pull the string into your clothes and don't want them to wrap around and cause you to miss the target and lose all your arrows.  That is a legit excuse to wear one and anyone in target archery should totally know.  In fact, chest guards for recurve archers are not just for girls, everyone wears them for the reason I mention above.  If you are hitting your chest with a compound less than 42" long A2A, just open your stance a bit.

I misread this as being outed by "my Hobby Lobby". It's funny how the brain translates things.

Are You shooting indoors or outdoors? If outside and You are starting HRT by the end of July, just wear it under the clothing. Chances are You will not have that fast development or they might not turn out that big to get in the way.... Besides,if You rotate and place Your wrist correctly, You should not get them in the way - just speculating about this one though, but I do remember that having a proper wrist placement minimised the risk of striking Your arm too, so I never needed the arm guard too - at least that was true with re-enactment longbows (not sure about Olympics and compounds though...).

This makes me want to buy a bow again...or just make a self bow again. Archery is great, though I never did it in a club, and I never used an arm guard (or chest guard, but until a few months ago I would have had no need) only gloves, I had a 47lb pull on my last bow, I am pretty sure that would be too much for me now.

For paintball I have taken to a chest protector under my jersey. No way in the world I would survive a paintball smacking into my breasts at 300fps. I am pretty sure the pain would just make me disintegrate. No one has noticed, but paintball jerseys are rather baggy, you aren't going to notice much under one.

Quote from: Hikari on July 14, 2014, 10:37:53 PM
This makes me want to buy a bow again...or just make a self bow again. Archery is great, though I never did it in a club, and I never used an arm guard (or chest guard, but until a few months ago I would have had no need) only gloves, I had a 47lb pull on my last bow, I am pretty sure that would be too much for me now.

For paintball I have taken to a chest protector under my jersey. No way in the world I would survive a paintball smacking into my breasts at 300fps. I am pretty sure the pain would just make me disintegrate. No one has noticed, but paintball jerseys are rather baggy, you aren't going to notice much under one.

PainTball = painball

What kind of archery style are you doing?  Recurve or compound?  For recurve, both the men and women use chest guards, so no biggie there.  For compound, unless your breast development is really extensive, I really can't see the issue.  I've seen rather endowed women at my club shoot without needing any specific chest/breast protection...and heck, I've seen older men with saggy man boobs also shoot compounds without adverse boob slap.

I once did some archery (lol, more like attempted to...) at a team building event. That day almost left me without a right nipply! Never again without proper protection.
O, and painball is out for me now too. Just the thought of that ball and my boobs put me off of it! LOL